Jake Merzigian

Jake Merzigian,(pronounced mer-ZIGGY’- an)I grew up in the display industry. My family had a company that manufactured wire baskets and displays used in retail stores. I can recall going into a store at an early age and not looking at the candy, but rather looking at how it was displayed. This focus became a good distraction for me, as I was not going to end up playing baseball for the Boston Red Sox. That dream came to an end for me when I had to round up to five feet tall and 100 pounds when I tried out for the high school baseball team. At that point, my idol changed from Jim Rice to Alex P Keaton.

My passion for trade shows started when I was in my early 20s and our company exhibited at one trade show each year, Global Shop at Chicago’s McCormick Place. I loved every aspect of working on the design and the pre-show mailers. I would go to the show early to help set up the booth and stay late after the show to dismantle it.

Zig Zibit became a reality in the spring of 2002. With unconditional support from my wife Donna, the World Headquarters was established with a make shift desk in a spare room above my garage in Auburn, MA. The first exhibit was sold to a company called Bluesocket out of Burlington, MA. I had nothing to show them, no portfolio, no history, just myself. The trade show coordinator for Bluesocket had a good feeling and actually bought a 10×20 custom exhibit. That was the launching pad. We moved the company to Raleigh, NC in the Summer of 2003 and have been building in our current location since Matt joined us in the Summer of 2004.

Fast forward to 2017… I have been fortunate to be surrounded by a group of people that share the passion for what we do. This is not an easy thing to do, or to do well. Our goal is to always be better, always improve, and learn from our mistakes, repeat our successes, and exceed expectations.